Now a little bit about yoga

I became a yoga teacher just six months after becoming a mom. My journey of learning and practicing yoga has coincided with learning how to mother my children and watch my 7 and 5 year old blossom into these two amazing little people.

Lately, as I watch moms pick up their children with cell phones attached to their ears, or see the SUV with a DVD on the big screen playing some Disney movie for a 10 minute drive, or as I catch myself rushing from place to place, telling my kids to “hurry up and eat,” we’ll be late for whatever is next on our busy schedule, I find myself asking the question, “How can I bring my yoga practice into my parenting?”

Children are natural yoga practitioners. I watch my five year old son stretch into child’s pose when he wakes up in the morning. I watch my daughter giggle with her girlfriends as they cartwheel around the yard, ever mindful and present, not a care in the world. And I observe myself, sitting on the floor with them, breathing, listening and being present. It’s not easy; sometimes I forget the complete presence I felt just two hours ago in my yoga class. Instead of listening to my kids, I’m worried about what I’ll make for dinner, or what appointments we have tomorrow, or my to do list for the PTA function coming up.

But my children, the best yoga teachers there are, bring me back to the moment. I slowly observe and stop my mind chatter, give my children eye contact and my complete focus and attention. I slow my breathing down and really listen, not just with my ears but with my heart. Isn’t that what yoga is all about? Being present? My dream is to help my son and daughter find their voice, their Satya with my love, connection and presence. Yoga sure helps.

Will's Pre-school

My son turned 5 in July but I decided to give him a growth year before starting kindergarten next year. He's in a WONDERFUL K-5 program at a local Baptist church. He attends just 3 days a week from 9:30 till 2:30. I love the school. The program emphasizes reading , music, Spanish and he attends PE with a certified PE teacher.

This week we got the food sign up list for the Fall Party. Yuck!! It was all sweets, two cookies each, candy, popcorn balls, juice drinks . . . I asked one of the teachers if I could bring some healthier options like fresh fruit and cheese cubes. Fortunately she said fine. Next week I'm going to speak to the director about some "nutrition" education with the teachers and possibly kids too.

The Carnival

The carnival at my kid's elementary school was a huge success. Thousands of kids came and enjoyed inflatables, games, crafts, a climbing wall, activites with the Y, another fitness club, pizza, (healthy) popcorn and bottled water. Along the lines of the "health theme" we had info. on yoga and the local Farmers Market. I felt so proud to chair this event but much greater than feeling proud was my feeling of gratitude for the WONDERFUL group of moms on my team. Thank you so much to Jill, Virginia, Anita, Robin, Katie and Whitney. I never could have done this without them.

Birthday parties

Okay, a little bit of candy and cake for a treat is OKAY. I don't advocate no candy or sweets. In fact, ice cream is my favorite food! IN MODERATION! But in our culture it's not in moderation. So what I'm about to say is a bit contraversial and my offend you. I'm sorry but I've got to say it. Cut out the 20 PIECES OF CANDY FOR GOODIE BAGS!!! Our kids don't need it!!! One or two pieces is fine. My 7 year old daughter went to 2 birthday parties this weekend and now has enough candy to fill a Halloween bag, at the end of a long night of trick or treating! Enough already.

My plans

My goal, in the next 12 months, is to put together a Healthy School Foods Proposal (to include snacks and school lunch) and present to the school board in my kids school district. Today I had the wonderful opportunity to speak to a school board member at our local PTA meeting! I shared may plan with her and she actually received it quite well! I was so excited. How will I go about this? First, I hope to gather parents from all the schools in our district and work together to come up with a plan. I'd like to model it similarly to the example in the documentary Two Angry Moms. (www.angrymoms.org.)

School Carnival

My big project at the moment, which I could not have done without the help of a WONDERFUL group of moms, is my kids school carnival. I am so excited that we're adding a "health" theme, partnering with two local fitness clubs, adding a climbing wall, nutrition info. and yoga info. There will be no food with high fructose corn syrup, transfat or artifical crap. In fact, Whole Foods Market is donating a a huge portion of our treats!

When Joe and I went out to eat Saturday, I saw a very overweight child. This breaks my heart because I believe this child is not at fault. But we adults are not ready yet it seems to accept full responsibility for this epidemic. And it is an epidemic. What are the causes? It's the cupcakes and candy and cookies served in schools and preschools. It's the advertising of junk food in the morning on the kids TV networks. It's the vending machines, pop machines at churches and other kids sporting locations. It's the junk food brought to soccer games and scout activities. It's everywhere. We don't serve our kids cigarettes and there are strict rules about this of course. Then why, why do we allow our kids to eat food with high fructose corn syrup, transfat and artificial junk?!?!?

Getting Ready for school

Wow, summer is almost over and school begins in just 3 days. A part of me can't wait till the kids get in school but a part of me is a bit sad that the lazy, relaxing, hanging by the pool, sleep in late, don't have to be anywhere days are coming to an end.

My big project now is the JEE (my kids elementary school) Fall Carnival, which I am chairing. In my role as "mom for healthy kids," I agreed to chair if we had no pop or candy and if we added a health component. A couple of health clubs are joining our effort and will do some fun kids stuff. Other organizations dedicated to kids health will also be there. Hopefully we'll have some yoga representation, fun games and a great turnout. Our snacks will be healthy popcorn, water and smoothies. We're doing pizza too since it will be during the dinner hour.

That's it from me.

Free hot dog -

Okay, when I picked up my daughter from VBS today, she had a coupon for a free hotdog or double scoop icecream cone at a local vendor. You know, just one cigarrette (sp?) does not cause cancer. We don't see the correlation with giving out just ONE cookie, can of pop, etc. junk food at summer camps, at school, at sports activities, as being a cause for this childhood epidemic we have on our hands! Today the the dr.'s office I picked up the latest copy of Time magazine. The cover story is "Our Super-Sized Kids." I did not want to read it there - was feeling anxious and did not want to contribute to my anxiety already. Since I saw 3 copies of the same magazine, I grabbed a copy and will read it tonight.

My focus now is volunteering for Family Night at the local Y. I will have healthy snacks available and info. on nutrition. I love to share this info.! I'm in charge of the school carnival and we're adding a healthy theme this year. Also, no pop or candy - just healthy food!

My focus at the moment

I will try to post on here at least twice a month. I just spent an amazing 5 days in Austin at a yoga training. My focus right now is planning the school's "health focused" carnival for next Fall. We'll have no pop or junk food at the event. Instead of a Cake Walk we're doing a Book Walk. Several health oriented booths will be there as well.

Once I get this off the ground, I plan to meet with a couple of people and plan a presentation for my school district's school board. I will model it similar to what was shown on the movie Two Angry Moms. (check out www.angrymoms.org.) This probably won't be until late next Fall.

I'm also considering starting a non-profit dedicated to educating parents about unhealthy food. That's in the works too!

2007 - 2008

Ok, here's a recap of what I've done this school year so far: I'll go into more detail in a bit. I'm still trying to play catch up and outline all that I've done in this effort. Then I can start writing more currently!
November 8 - brought the movie "Two Angry Moms" to Tulsa. More than 30 people showed up. Assembled a group of "experts" dedicated to improving children's health to join discussion after the movie.
December - Showed a pp presentation to school administrators and made a plea for more proactive nutrition/better school food efforts within our district. Did this with another mom. Showed statistics and facts as to why/how unhealthy food affects learning, school's bottom line, etc. Not recieved very well. Administrators did not see a strong need. They did agree to create a district-wide healthy and fit committee but it will only meet once a year!
November - Had a successful "healthy eating" themed PTA meeting. A rep from OK Fit Kids Coalition spoke at the event. Had healthy snack samples. Had great and positive discussion amongst parents.
December - Major ICE STORM hit. City shut down for week. No electricity for days. My son was sick during all of this. I did not handle this stressful situation very well but it was a learning experience. Then Christmas season - had to stop and reevaluate all of my efforts.

Beginnings of this Journey

Back to how I got started. First, a bit about my kids school. It's huge. It's a mini-college campus for grades pre-k through 4th grade. There are several buildings. Each grade has its own building and principal. There are about 13 classes per grade. The school ranks very high academically in our state and overall I'm very happy with the education my kids are getting here. My daughter has had incredible teachers. She's in 1st grade now. My son is in the pre-k.

When she was in pre-k I joined the school's healthy and fit committee - mandated by Federal and state law. We didn't accomplish a whole lot that first year. The second year I chaired a subcommittee that created "snack guidelines" for the school. In the younger grades, the kids take turns bringing shared snacks. At 1st grade and above, kids bring their own snacks. These guidelines were meant to suggest healthier snacks, i.e. instead of little debbies, bring in pretzels, for example. I also need to add that state law mandates no homemade food is allowed. I don't agree with this - all food (most of loaded with high fructose corn syrup and transfat) must be store-bought. For every birthday party, parents bring in cupcakes loaded with 5 inches of frosting. Actually, I just found out that another elementary school in our school district is no longer allowing the goodies for individual b-day parties. I think this is great!

At the end of my daughter's kindergarten year, I decided to take my efforts one step further and asked the PTA president if we could form a PTA healthy and fit committee. She agreed. I started that effort this year. More about this coming up.

How I got started

It's late and I'm tired but thought I'd write just a bit. I'm mainly doing this blog as an online journal of everything I do and have done. Realizwd I need a tool to keep track of all of my efforts. My journey really began Fall of 2005 when my daughter started the k4 program at our local elementary school. When I saw all the junk food allowed - food that my breastfed for 16 months, organically fed, wholesome, healthy child, had NEVER eaten - I was shocked and appalled. I'll just take care of this I thought as I set up a meeting with the PTA president and principal. Well more than 2.5 years later, the battle continues. . .